Former Miami state Sen. Alex Diaz de la Portilla is now a wanted man in Florida because he failed to obey a judge’s order that he turn over a Weimaraner dog to his ex-wife in a messy divorce case.

A defiant Diaz de la Portilla, reached by cellphone text message late Friday, said he wouldn’t turn himself in because Leon Circuit Judge Frank E. Sheffield issued an unlawful order. “We will file an appeal immediately and Judge Sheffield’s illegal decision will be reversed by the District Court of Appeal. His actions are clearly illegal,” Diaz de la Portilla wrote.

He wouldn’t give his whereabouts and is probably out of the country, according to a friend and his ex-wife, Claudia Davant, who said he’s now living large off the money he earned as a top strategist in the successful campaign last month of Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez.

“I hear he’s out of the country. . . . He’s clearly enjoying the fruits of the campaign work he did in Miami,” Davant said.

After this article appeared, Diaz de la Portilla's friend, Apryl Marie Fogel, explained that the former senator loves the dogs. "They're like his children," she said, adding that he feels Davant did not properly care for them. Davant denies the claim.